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Schools for scandal
Jagmohan Singh
In this Open Letter,
Jagmohan Singh tears apart the supposedly philanthropic move of
Panjab corporate giant Bharati Airtel to provide quality education
to the underprivileged in the state, exposing the wheeling-dealing
of the Akali government.
 Dear
Mr. Mittal:
I am
sure you can respond to Sat Sri Akal.
I am
livid with anger so you may excuse me if I am intemperate, though I
assure you that I will be thoroughly logical and factual. A
foundation set up by your company, called the Bharati Foundation,
for its Satya Bharati School Program, is to receive chunks of land
in many a village in Panjab free of cost!
All
Panjabis who are worried about the dismal state of education in the
state are shocked beyond words at the alacrity with which you are
getting away with your maneouvre.
There
is no doubt that education in Panjab is fertile territory. I am
sure that you and your team made a conscientious decision to enter
in the pedagogical domain. The Planning Commission of India has
remarked that 62 percent of Panjabi children passing out from
primary schools fail to achieve permanent literacy.
The
primary education system in the state has collapsed. Everyone
passes for no one wants anyone to fail. Teachers who do not teach,
parents who are not bothered, society who couldn’t care less, every
one wants 100 percent results!
There
are some 20,000 schools in Panjab, of which around 87 percent are
located in the rural areas. The pupil-teacher ratio is very high
and to talk of infrastructure for schools is considered sin.
Jaswinder Singh Brar of the Centre for Research in Economic Change
of the Punjabi University Patial in his monumental study, “Punjab’s
Educational Progress and Educational Expenditure (1967-68 to
1993-94) has pointed out that, “ The education system in Panjab is
not well integrated. The proliferation of multiple schooling with
different affiliations has played havoc with the education system.
The influential sections have withdrawn their children from
government schools, both in the rural and urban areas. The
education system has become an instrument of social stratification,
rather than that of cohesiveness. The upgradation of government
schools due to political considerations without providing the
matching facilities has disturbed equilibrium. A multi-dimensional
action is required in order to make education as an engine of
growth.”
I have
no hesitation in saying that all you want to do is to take the
government and people of Panjab for a ride. In Panjab, scandals are
discovered very late. Perhaps not discovered. Perhaps lost in the
din of populism and politicking.
It is fashionable
to use the word “Foundation” and route all your “corporate
responsibility” through that tube. Philanthropy as business is the
new side-kick of the emerging corporate giants in Panjab. Huge
marketing success and skyrocketing Stocks have resulted in surefire
political clout. With civil society nearly dead, (it was never much
alive anyway in Panjab), philanthropy as business is the new mantra
of people like you.
You
have achieved tremendous success as a telecom giant and that has
made Panjabis proud and happy. It is commendable that you have
set-up telephone manufacturing units in various parts of Panjab
where rural women are employed. I congratulate you for this
contribution.
Around
three months back, I was told this by a village sarpanch. He said,
“The party (read the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal) is using all its
influence to force Panchayats to pass a resolution to donate land to
your foundation.” Political interference is the bane of the
education system in Panjab and you are using that as the starting
point! This benevolence will begin your confrontation with civil
society in Panjab.
 Corporate responsibility of business was my pet subject when I was a
teacher of Management to undergraduate students of Mumbai University
in the early eighties. I did read then as I do now of
industrialists collaborating with governments to correct some
inherent wrongs in society or to take care of a particular problem,
but I have not came across an example of a rich industrial house,
using its clout to inherit free land from the state, which through
legal jugglery (called change of land use) will sooner or later be
used for commercial purposes, maybe as simple as putting up towers
of your telecom service to expand your reach into the heartlands of Panjab!
If
your trust would begin such activities then it will be open for
members of the public to cry hoarse and question the credibility of
awards like the Golden Peacock Award for Corporate Social
Responsibility, which was awarded to your foundation in 2006.
As
a part of your corporate responsibility, your company’s statement is
that “you encourage employees to take decisions and design
business-linked processes that are sensitive to the communities and
environment.” Have you ever monitored the Customer care services of
your telephone company, Airtel? Like scores of others, I am a
subscriber of your company’s services. None of your executives
speak Panjabi in Panjab. They speak the respective language of
other states where your network functions, but in Punjab they simply
ignore all pleas for Panjabi. Though you have not followed the
footsteps of your father by joining Panjab politics, perhaps you
continue the anti-Panjabi campaign launched by your father. The
next and new generation should certainly not perpetuate the wrongs
done by predecessors and forefathers. I strongly fear that in your
proposed schools, an alien culture and system will be foisted,
tearing apart the already strained social and cultural values of
Panjabis.
The
Congress government of Amarinder Singh was courteous enough to give
you 300 acres of prime land in Laddhowal near Ludhiana to enable you
to experiment with production and marketing of fresh fruits and
vegetables. I understand that the land was given on lease, but with
the active connivance and support of the Badal government, efforts
are afoot to convert the lease into permanent holding.
Your
website unabashedly says that through regular practice of yoga, you
stay calm and unruffled. This is very good. I do not regularly
practice yoga but have learnt a bit about it. Yogis don’t bring
harm to others. Yogis do not eat away common wealth. If the
government of Panjab pressurizes Panchayats to give away shamlat
land to the Bharati Foundation is it not cheating, is not un-yogic?
I will
not say that your Foundation should shy away from its avowed social
commitment.
 There are more easier, tangible ways of demonstrating
your contribution to society. In the next five years, all the money
that your Foundation chooses to spend in Panjab must be spent on
building infrastructure for schools. Virtually all government
schools standing in almost every village of Panjab need a good
building, a library, a laboratory and even basic toilet and washroom
facilities.
The
government of Panjab has failed to fulfill one of its primary
objectives of providing education to all. It is seeking the easiest
way out by passing on the buck to you. In 1985-86, Panjab ranked 7th
amongst all states in excellence in education, today we are at
number 17. As you have impeccable political clout, why don’t you
use your influence on the Chief Minister and Education Minister of Panjab to increase the annual budgetary outlay on education? You
must provide state-of-the-art technology to the Punjab School
Education Board. Obviously, with no strings attached.
When
Mr. Pavnesh Kumar, Controller of Examinations of the CBSE visited
Baru Sahib School in
the Himalayas,
he is said to have remarked, “What we need first in society are
noble citizens. If you do not know how to deal with human beings,
your existence in this world is no use.” On the contrary, your
foundation stresses the importance of education to make individuals
“employable”.
As you
aim to make the students employable, you should set up IITs and
vocational training institutes. Please go to the Baba Aya Singh
Rearki College in Tugalwala, Gurdaspur and grant a few crores
there. You may do well to study the Anandshalas promoted by UNICEF,
like in Bilpudi in Gujarat.
I need
not remind you that your market capitalization has crossed the
Rupees 2 lakh crore mark. I do not even know how to spell out the
numbers! With your holding of nearly 70 percent of the stakes in
your flagship company, Bharti Airtel, you are worth nearly 21
billion dollars and you are ranked the fourth richest Indian.
Still, if you were to take donations from the state exchequer or
from village Panchayats, to say the least, it would be outrageous.
I am
very pleased that the editor of the Daily Ajit newspaper, Barjinder
Singh Harmdard has raised his voice against your move. I will urge
him to convert this into a movement to stop the rut going from bad
to worse.
I am determined
to contest this scandalous move. I will use the choicest Panjabi
abuse through all the lung and tongue power at my command to deter
your foundation from shaking the foundation of our education system
and culture. If the pen is mightier than the sword, I will use it
to its fullest. Years ago, I made it a mission to remove the clause
giving voting rights to the so-called Sehajdhari Sikhs in the
governance of the Gurdwaras under the Sikh Gurdwara Act, 1925. It
took me almost a decade, but I succeeded. Waheguru willing, my next
mission would be to build an effective education system in Panjab
and stop the likes of you from blatant intervention. I am
determined to succeed in this too. I will begin at the micro-level
and make gradual advances.
Earlier on in your career, you made it your mission to replace
rotary phones with push-button phones. Now you are on the
anvil of replacing the supposedly ugly government elementary
education system with your modern-looking push-button educational
plan. Phones and education are not the same.
Sincerely
Jagmohan Singh
(Jagmohan Singh is a social, religious,
health and political activist based in Ludhiana, Panjab. He may be
contacted at
jsbigideas@gmail.com )
21
November, 2007
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